The Nintendo news and discussion thread

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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KSubzero1000
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by KSubzero1000 »

This overlaps with what I've heard of the game and is the reason why I've never bought or played it, along with its sequel.

I love a good JRPG, in theory at least. Baten Kaitos and Golden Sun have both let an indelible mark on me and have earned a spot in my Top 20. Eternal Sonata has one my favorite concepts of any game I've ever played and the Xenoblade soundtrack is worth the entry price alone, in my opinion. I still have several classics in my backlog I firmly intend to play through at some point, the most prominent of which probably being Xenogears and Shadow Hearts 1 & 2.

But man, mandatory or unavoidable grinding is about the most egregious design decision ever and the main reason I'm so selective with the genre these days. I simply don't have the patience for it.

It's weird how that stuff works, really. I will gladly spend ten hours banging my head against a well-designed difficulty spike in an action game but even one hour of monotone randomized enemy encounters makes me feel like I'm completely wasting my time.

I'd love to see a JRPG take a completely different and streamlined approach to its combat system. Don't overcomplicate things for no reason (like in Resonance of Fate) and don't go the MMO cooldown-centric route with a myriad of pointless stats (like all the Xenoblade games). Just keep it simple, fun, time-efficient, somewhat skill-based and most importantly, make it feel like every encounter matters instead of just making the numbers go up. Combine that with memorable three-dimensional characters, a rich soundtrack, a captivating art style and a solid plot dealing with mature and interesting themes, and I'm all in. Think Chrono Trigger.
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Alex79
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

You're almost describing how Yakuza works there, more or less. I'd love to see a full on JRPG with Yakuza or God Hand type combat. As opposed to the exact opposite that they're planning for Yakuza 7!

Hmm, thanks for the warnings anyway, all. I actually don't mind a bit of grinding, it comes as standard with the genre I guess, but not forced and excessively so.
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Scrustle
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Scrustle »

I've always been interested in Ni No Kuni because of the Ghibli connection, but been put off simply by the genre/combat style. I also tried the demo and found said combat to be confusing and convoluted. I've not heard about it being especially grindy before though.

I did however play the sequel, and I did like it, but I can't bring myself to say that it was really "good". Definitely not bad, but simply just fine. Just good enough to keep me playing and pushing on, never doing anything bad that would upset that, but not really offering anything especially exciting or special either. It basically survived on good art direction and soundtrack.

It has made me want to play the original again though, as I hear people say that some of the things NNK2 fails on, it does much better. A much stronger story for one. It seems like it has a stronger connection to the Ghibli stuff too. And maybe if I play the actual full game with a proper tutorial, I'll understand the combat better. This remaster seemed like a perfect chance to do that, but apparently it's not after all. A real shame. The idea of a Ghibli RPG is like a dream game concept, yet despite it being done several times now, it's still yet to actually realise that potential. Or not made a game that I was really in to anyway. Not sure what people think of Jade Cocoon.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Simonsloth »

Alex79uk wrote: September 21st, 2019, 8:41 pm Anyone played much NNK:Wrath Of The White Witch? I like JPGs, love the style, and love that I'd be able to play it handheld. Seems a dead cert, the port has got great reviews too.
I loved it. Admittedly I played it during a time when I didn’t have kids and could dedicate whole weekends to a game if I wanted to.

It’s incredibly charming and tells a lovely story. I did not find it grindy at all from memory. I recall mopping up side quests and going creature hunting when I felt I couldn’t progress easily in the main game. In my opinion it would suit the switch perfectly!

Full disclosure in the years leading up to this I played and completed every final fantasy game back to back so perhaps my opinion a bit skewed.
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dezm0nd
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by dezm0nd »

Playing Links remakening and I'm a bit stuck. I've done 2 dungeons and I'm onto my next bit but I just need a clue better than what that idiot on the telephone is giving me.

I'm more than happy to explore the island but my gaming time is scarce and wouldn't mind a gentle nudge.

edit: sussed it. Turns out those Owl Statues who were talking in riddles actually had a point with one of them.
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JadePhoenix
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by JadePhoenix »

Alex79uk wrote: September 21st, 2019, 8:41 pm Anyone played much NNK:Wrath Of The White Witch? I like JPGs, love the style, and love that I'd be able to play it handheld. Seems a dead cert, the port has got great reviews too.
I bounced off the original after ~15 hours. I don't remember it being terribly grindy, but I didn't really enjoy the combat. It's certainly gorgeous though. The sequel, which I did finish, had much better game-play, but the story wasn't nearly as engaging.
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KissMammal
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by KissMammal »

dezm0nd wrote: September 23rd, 2019, 9:24 am Playing Links remakening and I'm a bit stuck. I've done 2 dungeons and I'm onto my next bit but I just need a clue better than what that idiot on the telephone is giving me.

I'm more than happy to explore the island but my gaming time is scarce and wouldn't mind a gentle nudge.

edit: sussed it. Turns out those Owl Statues who were talking in riddles actually had a point with one of them.
Funny you should say that - I'm experiencing similar things with LA. The minute to minute gameplay itself is very easy, but I'm finding progress very stuttery as I'm constantly at a loss as to where to go next, and I've had to resort to googling what to do/where to go a fair few times after getting fed up of wandering around aimlessly hitting dead ends. The game feels a little more obtuse than other Zeldas, and I think its maybe to do with the map feeling so compact and maze-like? I find the overworld a little claustrophobic maybe, and not super fun to explore, if that makes sense?

I dunno, not loving the game as much as I thought I would, so far.
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Alex79
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

They had the exact same conversation on last week's IGN UK podcast, that most of the challenge in the game came from not knowing where to go next rather than it being difficult.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by KissMammal »

It seems to me like some of the puzzles fit the mold of the more old school trial and error type design - eg it would simply never occur to me to use
Spoiler: show
magic powder to ignite a lantern
... Perhaps I missed a hint, perhaps that would be obvious to other people, but it just doesn't seem like a logical solution to me. There was also a bit in another dungeon where you need to
Spoiler: show
charge at a vortex. Being that I never interpreted the vortex thing as a living monster that could be 'killed', it never occurred to me to 'attack' it, so I kept trying to jump over or otherwise bypass it before eventually losing my patience and resorting to google.
It's little things like that that - for me - leads to a very stuttery, stop-start experience where progress is frequently interrupted by being stumped by some fairly illogical obstacle. It's a shame as I am really loathe to resort to a walkthrough, and normally would never need to in a typical Zelda game. The constricted world map, while charming in its own way, also makes the game feel really linear - almost on rails at points - and the item based gating feels really in your face at all times.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Suits »

Zelda:LA was a game that took me well over a year as a child to beat.

With the final puzzle requiring me to call the Nintendo Hotline.

However, all the info, all the sign posts are there - you’ve just got to give it full thought all of the time.

Which in modern times might be a little tricky to stomach.

I’m loving it, but I’m not loving the performance. The resolution, the up and down frame rate - it runs like a bit of a pig to be honest.
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KissMammal
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by KissMammal »

However, all the info, all the sign posts are there - you’ve just got to give it full thought all of the time.

Which in modern times might be a little tricky to stomach.
Yeah - it does have that old school Zelda thing of expecting tips to be shared on the playground etc.
not loving the performance. The resolution, the up and down frame rate - it runs like a bit of a pig to be honest.
Yeah - it looks gorgeous, but the performance is surprisingly ropey for a first party nintendo title, and takes the shine off the visuals somewhat.
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Suits
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Suits »

So, (as many I'm certain) I'm currently playing through SMW on the Switch SNES app.

And well as saving the game when prompted I'm also using see states between castles and ghost houses because it's just nicer that way and I don't have anything to prove.

Now, I'm probably not the only one who's made this mistake but today as I was showing off the Switch Lite in work to a few colleagues, I loaded up SMW to show off the new d-pad, in my haste, - I saved, instead of loaded.

So, I saved the games splash screen, over, my actual save game. Great.


I pondered for a moment, then realised that as my Switch was in work with me and not set up on the WiFi, my cloud save hadn't yet uploaded, (also worth noting that cloud saves only sync when the console is put into sleep mode) so I was able to pull down my original cloud save back onto my Switch and overwrite the one I'd just made, thus making good in the world again.

Handy to know if anyone makes a similar mistake perhaps.
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KissMammal
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by KissMammal »

Nice! I tend to stagger my save state slots in traditional Final Fantasy fashion for this very reason.
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Alex79
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Same here, or I'll always save the same save in to two slots just in case. Good tip to know, though Suits, thanks!
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Suits
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Suits »

I know rookie error, hey 😄.

I’d been blasting through it and it didn’t even occur to me to stagger save !!
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Plundered from the CaR Facebook page, but I'm so hyped for this!

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/ ... _to_switch

Classic HOTD games coming to Switch! YAAAAAAAAS!! Damn I love those games.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

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Alex79uk wrote: September 26th, 2019, 9:26 pm Plundered from the CaR Facebook page, but I'm so hyped for this!

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/ ... _to_switch

Classic HOTD games coming to Switch! YAAAAAAAAS!! Damn I love those games.
Is there a light gun peripheral?
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Alex79
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

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Well there's the cardboard build-it zapper thing, forgot what those packs are called (you know, theres a VR one and a robot one etc) But you'll just be able to use the Joycons as they've got gyros in. The games were excellent using the Wiimotes and PS Move controllers. They'll still be so much fun just using Joycons for sure.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Suits »

If you can use the VR Blaster with the HotD games - that’ll be something I’d try for sure.
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Re: The Nintendo news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah, I can see the game being really fun even just in handheld mode using tilt to aim, too. I can't wait!

No Switch Lite play though, I guess. Unless you're using sticks to aim, in which case this really isn't the best way to enjoy a light gun game.
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